german documentaries 2011

A TINY PIECE OF SEMPEROPERA HAS BEEN ENTRUSTED TO YOU
by Ines Janosch & Danuta Derbich ARTS | CULTURE | HISTORY | MUSIC
It was the night of February 13th 1945 when Dresden was destroyed in an airstrike.
And with it vanished semper opera, Dresden´s heart of culture. Nothing but it´s impressive front
remained and turned the former legendary opera house into a single memorial -until it´s reconstruction
was pushed through by the Dresdeners 30 years later. The laying of the foundations in 1977
meant the beginning of an adventure for hundreds of restorers, artists, and plasterers. It was a challenging
experience: The original building plans and drafts had been lost and the legendary colouring
was only documented in letters. An exceptionally difficult task was awarded to the stucco plasterers
who manufactured the stucco marble and stucco-lustro. These were essential for the accurate historical
reconstruction of the foyers and vestibules and the reproduction of their architectural effects.
Those long-forgotten crafts had to be re-learned. Also, the long-term lack of material, a result of the
GDR’s weak economy, aggravated the process of reconstruction.
During all this time, a group of film-makers documented silently and carefully. They immortalised the
painters, sculptors, carpenters and stucco plasterers at work, ironing, waxing and polishing, painting
and reconstructing. This treasure of cinematic art has now been made available by the film group.
Our film tells the story of the film-group and the people who rebuilt the semper opera. Along with
the Dresdeners, who fought against the GDR government for their dream of reconstructing the opera
house.
German title: EIN WINZIGES STÜCK SEMPEROPER IST DIR ANVERTRAUT
55min | HD EX | original German version with English subtitles available
TOUGH MEN
by Tanja Hamilton CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY | SPORTS | DAILY LIFE | PORTRAIT
In West Virginia, where unemployment is high and prospects
are bleak, the ‘Toughman Contest’ is a huge event every year.
In a single elimination boxing tournament, ordinary men slug
it out for the glory of the title ‘Toughest Man in Town’.
Most have never fought anywhere besides a schoolyard or a
bar. They’re miners, truckers or lumberjacks from the deepest
hollows of Appalachia.
TOUGH MEN is a 90-minute, character driven documentary that
follows three contestants. For all of them the fight in the ring parallels the fights they face in real life.
They walk away from the contest changed forever.
90min | HDV | 16:9 | original English version with German or English subtitles available
TRIBES OF COLOGNE
by Anja Dreschke SOCIAL-BIOTOPE | ETHNOLOGY | LONGTERM | CULTURE
For several years anthropologist and filmmaker Anja Dreschke accompanied the Cologne Tribes,
particular societies whose members imitate "foreign" and/or historic cultures notably Huns and
Mongolians as a leisure time activity. Thus she realised an ethnographic long-term study providing a
"thick description" of historical reenactment as an outstanding cultural phenomenon.
German title: DIE STÄMME VON KÖLN
89min | HD | original German version with English subtitles available
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german documentaries 2011
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